Learning how to use POS software is like learning to surf on so many ways. It’s about knowing when to push off, which wave to catch, how to balance, how to ride it is and when yo feel exalted.
It’s kinda how we approach training, mentorship and support here at Tower Systems for our 3,000+ local retail business POS software customers.
Every local retail business has different waves, different challenges and opportunities. Every local retail business owner and team member has different skills. We know that a one size fits all approach does not work, that there is no corporate approach you can take to implementing POS software. It’s why our approach is personal, fit for each customer business.
We like the surfing analogy because it reflects the unexpected we see in local retail, the need to be flexible, to read the waves and to adjust accordingly. This is what our POS software helps with, and our training guides local retailers on this.
Tower Systems is not your average POS software company.
Attracting new traffic, new shoppers, is vital for local retail businesses. Every new shopper adds value to the business today and into the future.
We are always looking for businesses that do this well, in ways not traditional for that type of business. We found one a few weeks ago in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin – the Avant Cafe & Cycle shop. Here is a new video from us in which we explore what we like about what the folks at Avant are doing, what we learned from them.
They offers are well defined, quality and complimentary, yet able to successfully stand along … and that is key to any business attracting new traffic for specialty products or services – they need to be able to stand alone as that strength enhances the value of the combined offer.
Pursuing new traffic is the single most important business management activity for you and your business.
We suggest pursuing new traffic is a meditation point for any local specialty retailer… new traffic, what it is, what it means and how you can attract it.
When you approach any management or strategic activity in your business, think about what this task or activity will do to attract new shoppers.
It is not enough to do something in your shop for that is only seen by people in your shop. What are you doing to promote this outside your shop? … because that is where new traffic is to be found.
This is not something for your suppliers to do. It is up to you. Only you and your actions can attract new traffic.
Pursuing new traffic is about far more than putting new products in your store. Indeed, stock is only one of several steps that are all connected in pursuing new traffic. However, stock is the start. Stocking new lines never offered in the business are the best first step to take to bring in people who do not shop with you today.
What they are doing at Avant is attracting people who love and appreciate good coffee while at the same time attracting local cyclists and people wanting to purchase bikes or have their bikes serviced. Each of these separate areas does well, and they compliment each other.
It can be a struggle in local small business retail to be noticed. You can feel helpless, under-resourced, too small to be heard. The negative self-talk can have you doing less, being heard less, noticed less.
In truth, local small business retailers have the best voices, the most authentic voices, the most valuable voices for the local community.
The best way for any local retail business to be promoted is through word of mount and word of mouth depends on customer service and value appreciation.
The Tower Systems POS software helps nurture word of mount. Better still, it helps support the value appreciation. It does this by demonstrating value consistently, at shopper touch points, in ways we see them appreciate, and talk positively about to others.
Our local small business retail helps retailers systemise and structure these activities so that the value of the business can be felt and understood in ways that support the growth of the business through the attraction of new shoppers, thanks to word of mount commentary.
Local small business retailers can compete against big, well-funded, businesses.
The key is to be yourself in what you do, what you offer and how you communicate. This is where the Tower Systems POS software helps as it comes from an understanding of the challenges of local small business retail and the value these businesses offer their local communities. Our software, which is only used in indie retail (no big business) offers subtle platforms for sharing the massages core to the business and ways the business can add value that are exclusive, unique.
Imagine the delight a shopper feels when they are given something unexpected, something they can use right away, something that appreciates their business in your shop that day … and that they have been given this without having to sign up for anything, without having to fill in a form, without having to give any personal details. This is a measure of trust between the business and the shopper. It has the shopper more engaged, more trusting and moire keen for the opportunity.
This is one way our POS software helps local small business retailers provide appreciation that is talked about, mentioned, raved about. We have seen this help bring new shoppers to local retail businesses.
This is one of plenty of ways the Tower Systems POS software can help local retailers be seen, be noticed, and flourish.
While we think it’s more than one thing that differentiates our POS software, some of us got together to record this video where we each share our one-thing:
If your local retail business competes with big businesses and online businesses, you are likely copying them and their approach to loyalty. Points are the common approach. The world is obsessed with points, chasing them, collecting and trying to spend them.
But who knows that they are worth?
Each point is not the same whereas each dollar is a dollar everywhere.
The Tower Systems POS software offers a points based loyalty solution embedded in the POS software – for businesses that like to copy big business. The businesses that like to innovate, be different and stand out, however, use the discount vouchers facilities in our POS software. In these facilities there are no points accrued. rather, loyal shoppers accrue dollars. See how:
With hundreds of local small business retailers using the Tower Systems discount vouchers we have good data to speak to when encouraging local retailers to embrace the opportunity.
For years, retailers, especially independent and small business retailers, have been told to follow retail giants and reward loyal shoppers with points that can be redeemed for gifts and discounts.
Dutifully, many small business retailers acted on this – but without a thought-through strategy to achieve the best outcome for the business.
Without a financially rewarding outcome for a business, a loyalty program is worthless.
This is why retailers, in any retail channel and in any retail situation – high street, shopping mall, rural and or regional – need options in terms of shopper loyalty rewards.
While a points based program is useful, it could be that the business will benefit from a different approach.
Good POS software will offer flexibility. This flexibility can add thousands of dollars to the bottom line performance of a retail business each year.
Change the game: front-end loyalty
By using an approach we at Tower call front-ending loyalty, retailers can achieve more from first-time and infrequent shoppers. Front-ending loyalty brings a reward to the front in an effort to engage shoppers in additional purchases sooner.
Too often loyalty has been all about total spend over a year whereas above average spend in just one visit can be morevaluable to a business.
It’s an approach that can encourage those who do not shop with you to purchase something else right away, to get the value of the cash discount offered.
Regular shoppers can spend the cash discount right away or come back within any time limit you set.
We started trialling this front-ending loyalty strategy in February 2013 in several retail businesses. We did it using the Discount Vouchers facilities in the Tower Systems software.
Building the basket
From the first day we saw shoppers changing behaviour.
One chap came in to purchase a specific item. When he was handed the receipt the voucher was pointed out to him – offering $2.00 off his next purchase. He was not a regular and so spent the $2.00, and more, right away on another item. He received another voucher and purchased a third item. In all, he spent three times as much as the original purchase – all because of the Discount Vouchers he received.
Around 33% of all vouchers redeemed are used the day they are received. This shows customers building the basket – adding to their purchase that day as a result of the voucher. This makes each visit more valuable to us.
Bringing shoppers back
Around 33% of redeemed vouchers are used within seven days of issue and the remaining 33% are redeemed up to four weeks after issue.
Here’s another real story: A month after we started trialling this new approach to loyalty, a customer came in and used a voucher she had picked up a couple of weeks earlier. She was happy to get $5.00 off a $45.00 item she wanted. This resulted in another voucher so she bought another item for $29.95.
This customer said she would be back. Two weeks later she was.
You control the business rules covering how vouchers are issued and redeemed. You control your financial exposure at all times.
Like any good loyalty program, you need good levers with which to drive shopper engagement and to deliver the benefits it needs to justify the investment.
The Discount Vouchers facilities in the Tower software have this.
Every day can feel like a grind in local small business retail. A grind competing with big businesses, a grind competing with online businesses. It can wear people down if they let it.
The key is to not let it wear you down.
It starts with loving your business, believing in it, respecting it and making it stronger at the core. That’s what this advice from Tower Systems is about today, making your business stronger at the core, by making the business more competitive.
5 ways to make your local retail business more competitive
Now, before we get into them they will feel easy, even lame. The thing is, these are deliberately everyday things you can do without a budget, just with a small time investment.
These are all things your POS software, like the Tower Systems POS software, can help with if you wish.
1. Offer something unique that your competitors don’t. This could be a unique product, service, or even just a specific focus or niche that you cater to. have a point of different. This matters a lot. Create it, embrace it, leverage it. This point of difference is you, it is your reason, your go to, your 7 second pitch.
2. Make sure your prices are competitive. This doesn’t mean always having the lowest prices, but rather offering a good value for what you’re selling. Value is something you create based on how you bundle items, how you source to differentiate, how you make raw price comparisons hard.
3. Offer excellent customer service. This could be something as simple as providing a great experience in your store, or going above and beyond to help your customers. make it personal, different and valuable. At each contact point provide that extra bit that helps people make better use of what you sell.
4. Use marketing and advertising wisely. Make sure you’re targeting your ideal customer, and using the most effective channels to reach them. When you market, market you, your point of difference – always ahead off price as price based shoppers are not loyal.
5. Stay up to date on industry trends. This will help you anticipate changes and stay ahead of your competitors. It will also help your business be a resource, and that will bring people back.
Being more competitive in local retail is all about you and the core of your business. get this right and worries about competitors out there, real or imagined, will fade away.
Tower Systems through its POS software helps with this and more. We have embedded in our software opportunities for you showing your competitive advantages, giving shoppers lived experiences they will love.
We are grateful to have welcomed more retailers to the Tower Systems POS software community from the MYOB Retail Manager software.
With MYOB making their intentions re the future of Retail Manager clear, retailers, community groups, clubs and others using the software are looking for alternatives, solutions o9n which they can rely into the future.
Tower Systems has helped many businesses and groups move from MYOB Retail Manager to the Tower Systems POS software. We do this in a structured and methodical way, working with our customers to bring across what they trust and helping them setup in a new world with fresh data fresh settings and, best of all, comprehensive training and one-on-one support.
We have many customers in many different retail settings who have made the switch from MYOB Retail Manager before. They can speak to the software as well as our support processes that have helped them land where they are. People switching from MYOB Retail Manager today can rely on the experiences of others. They can also trust the Tower Systems commitment to continual evolution of its POS software in service o0f the needs of specialty retail.
Like any new installation of our POS software, we start the relationship wanting to ensure we understand the needs of a business. This actually starts before prospective customers even sign up with us. We want to make sure we can meet their needs. So, we start a discovery process before anything else. If our software does meet their needs, then it’s full steam ahead with comprehensive training in how to use the software and easy to access customer service for any query customers may have once the training is completed. We make it easy to learn and easy to continue to learn long after the software is being used in a business.
We differ from the old MYOB approach in that we provide all our own training, we are very accessible – through to our leadership team, our software is regularly enhanced, documentation is regularly updated, and, support access is easy and direct … by phone, email in person, text message or through social media. We make it easy for you to reach us when you need us.
If you are using MYOB Retail Manager in your business and you want to consider an alternative, Tower Systems is here for you. We’d love to find out more about your needs: 1 300 662 957 or sales@towersystems.com.au.
Rewarding shopper loyalty in retail businesses has become industrial in scale, which means it is less personal, and more about the retail business than the shopper.
Too many local small business retailers think the best way to compete with big business loyalty offerings is to copy them, which means offering points to shoppers that they can then use somehow in the business.
What are points worth?
That’s the million dollar question. or, maybe, the million point question.
Because … in one shop a point is equal to a dollar, in another, it takes 1,000 points to equal a dollar, while in another it takes 10 points to equal a dollar for selected items in the shop but not everything they have available.
No wonder shoppers are confused as to the actual value of loyalty points. They are confusing.
While our awesome local retail POS software serves a points based loyalty offering, because our POS software customers wanted that, we also have an awesome, and better we think, loyalty solution that is $$$ based, that shoppers understand, and love – we say love because we have seen and heard shoppers say this. Better still, we see shoppers love our $$$ based loyalty solution through their spending patterns.
What we offer in our POS software loyalty solutions is flexibility, transparency and easy engagement.
You can have your Tower Systems POS software loyalty solution live in minutes.
It costs nothing to setup.
What you invest in it is 100% your call.
What shoppers get from it is 100% your call.
It’s a standard part of our POS software – you don’t have to pay us or anyone to participate.
Shoppers don’t need to register, which means more will engage.
This is about driving sales, as that’s key in any retail business.
Sure, likes are nice and follows are great and having plenty of members in a loyalty program makes your chest puff out … b u t what really matters, what matters the most in any shop, in any retail business, is the business you put through your register and it is this business, what you sell and what you make from all that, which pays the bills, pays your people, pays you.
The Tower Systems approach to shopper loyalty through its local retail POS software offers a points based solution. but, better still, is the $$$ based offer that any customer can understand and with which any customer can engage, including those one-time customers you will never see again – those customers can do 2, 3, heck, even 4 transactions in a single visit. That’s what we have seen when retailers turn on our awesome POS software loyalty solutions.
Tower Systems makes POS software for local specialty retailers like jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, pet shops, newsagents, toy shops, sewing shops, homewares shops, gift shops, firearms dealers, adult shops, bookshops, farm supply businesses, mobility scooter businesses and pool maintenance and supply businesses.
It is this specialisation, this service of local small business retail that helps us provide solutions for shoppers who do shop local and who can be loyal, providing wonderful and valuable business to the local high street retail economy.
If your shop sells online and in a physical store, how easy is it for you to report on sales revenue by location of the sale?
How easy is it for you to report in-store sales versus online sales?
We think this should be easy.
Online sales have a different set of costs compared to in-store sales. There are different customer acquisition costs, too, and different fulfilment costs.
By separating out the reporting of sales based on the platform through which sales are transacted, Tower Systems provides retailers using its POS software with insights that could be valuable in better understanding the business, and thereby better taking those next steps in the business.
This level of reporting in the Tower Systems POS software is differentiating for the business, it is helping Tower Systems to win customers, for which we are sincerely grateful.
When we shared our innovative approach with our customers, there was much joy. The enhancements were not sought out by our customers. We did it because we saw the need in our own retail businesses. So when the enhancements were released in an update a while back, customers were surprised. It was like giving them a nugget of gold that made their use of our POS software even more valuable. We are so proud of delivering this and delivering what’s next in this space, and next again.
While our POS software connected Shopify, Magneto and Woo customers can get the online sales data from those platforms, by bringing it together in the POS, which manages data for all sales – in-store as well as online – made sense to us. It’s a time saver for retailers and retail business managers. It is a good decision feeder by placing this data, these insights, in one place.
This is a good POS software move, a value-add, a way the Tower Systems POS software enhanced the user experience and the value they can mine from their use of our POS software.
Maybe you can tell we are excited. Well, that’s because of customer feedback. Yes, it’s been terrific, for which we are even more grateful.
2022 is a good year for local small business retail and we are happy to be part of the story evolving in many main street settings in Australia and New Zealand.
When comparing POS software for your retail business be sure to look at the total cost of ownership.
If there is a fee per transaction, work out what you would be paying for the software based on your current transaction volume level.
One local retailer recently discovered that they would be paying $5,000 a year more for another POS software product compared to going with Tower Systems. This is despite the other company saying they were low cost. Once they added up the software rental cost, the per transaction cost, the EFTPOS cost and the cost for additional support to match what we consider to be basic support, the cost was even greater.
We all have EFTPOS costs so comparing the companies on that net each other off. The real differences were in the per transaction cost – we don’t have one – and the cost for extra support – there, it’s all included.
Taking a moment to more completely research the cost of POS software can reveal significant cost differences.
Another company said their rental was $50 a month less if you sign ups for their payments platform. You had to dig a bit to see the actual costs of that. What we found in that situation was that their payment costs were 33% above market cost, meaning a business that signs up for their payments platform would pay far more to use their POS software than if they went with us, where costs are transparent and fixed.
The retailer being hit with these costs, once they discovered the extent of them, was horrified at what they had been paying.
Here at Tower Systems we are a POS software company. We are not in the business of setting our price based on your transaction volume or how people pay. Indeed, it frustrates us when local retailers discover how much extra they have paid because they signed up to a transaction fee arrangement as most we have spoken to who did this did so without understanding. They thought it was a saving. They tend to feel dudded and this negatively impacts how they see all POS software companies.
All of us in business owe our customers transparency when it comes to pricing. Charging per transaction or charging based on the use of a payments platform is not transparent based on what we can see, or not see as the case may be.
A couple of us were fortunate to spend time visiting a range of innovative local small business specialty retail in Los Angeles. In this new video, we share some of what we saw.
It’s an easy complaint to make – my merchant fees are going up, it’s not fair, time for me to consider another supplier.
Okay, yeah, that’s an easy take. It’s a cheap shot by us to call it out. But, let’s explain and explore it with you.
Our advice is to look at your data first.
We have thoroughly looked at hundreds of thousands of baskets from many retail businesses.
The most common reason merchant fees are increasing is because of more sales transacted using EFTPOS.
While sometimes the actual fee basis, flat fee per Tx or percentage, increases, this is rare.
Yes, the most common reason a retailer paid more in merchant fees last month than the month before is because more transactions were paid for on a card.
So, the EFTPOS provider is not the cause of the issue.
Retailers is some marketing groups have access to preferential rates that see them paying the lowest fees in the country.
But, that addresses only the base cost.
To address the growing cost to the business, of people using a card to pay, you need to be an engaged retailer. Here are some ideas:
Promote cash payment – if you want the costs associated with cash of course.
Be clear as to the cost of using a card. You could apply a surcharge, which I think is a ridiculous idea though.
Price knowing that cards will be used. Build the cost into your pricing model. Keep the bump under 2% and it is less likely to be noticed.
Lower a cost elsewhere to cover the cost. Look at your labour cost, for example. Shaving a hour of employee rostered time can save you around $30.00, that’s equal to purchases of $3750.00 on a card – depending on the type of card used.
Increase sales. While you should be single-mindedly focussed on this anyway, increasing sales helps you address the EFTPOS cost and more in the business.
It’s easy to kick a bank over EFTPOS fees. But … before you do that, look at your own behaviour. Here are common points in retail businesses that retailers overlook when they kick a supplier:
Dead stock. It’s easy to identity but often not. A problem not seen is not a problem to some. In my experience on conducting an audit of stock performance, usually, 20% of stock on the shop floor over which the retailer has full control underperforms and should not be there.
Bloated roster. Some prefer to spend money on people so they have time to themselves for relaxing, golf or to sit in the back office, where no customer purchases from.
Wrong trading hours. Some stay open too long while others are not open long enough. Either way has a cost to the business.
Being blind to theft. Theft in retail, like a local newsagency business, costs on average between 3% and 5% of turnover. Not watching for it, tracking it and mitigating against it has a cost to the business.
The wrong product mix. GP% is a key measure of retail business performance. Increasing yours beyond what is traditional for your channel provides you with a buffer. For example, transaction count / sales can decline and you can be okay. Measure GP%. Set a goal. Chase it. The air is cleaner in above average.
Ignorance. It’s not bliss. It’s not! There are insights in your software that can guide better decisions, faster decisions, more financially rewarding decisions. Yet, too many in retail don’t want to know. That failure costs them plenty.
The 6 items on the above list are all on the retailer to address.
We get that it’s easy to complain about high EFTPOS fees. If you are contemplating that, please take a moment to look back inside your business, look at the reason why and see if there are decisions you could make that are more valuable than complaining about EFTPOS fees or changing supplier. Our team here at Tower Systems would be happy to help.
Rising EFTPOS fees are likely not a problem since the y reflect rising sales, unless your provider is hiking your fees, which is rare.
Here is a new video from Tower Systems in which we discuss opportunities for early detection and mitigation of employee theft and customer theft in retail:
The Tower Systems POS software connects directly with Xero and has done for many years. we are grateful to be a development partner of Xero, providing seamless and safe data flow between the POS software and Xero.
Retailers using the Tower POS software can turn on the Xero accounting software connection without additional cost. yes, this Xero POS software link is included with the software, helping to reduce the cost of accurate accounting for local small business retailers.
The development of the POS software Xero link has been overseen by our retail software development experts and our own COPA accountant, taking it beyond the usual software focus – this is a whole of business focus, a whole of business solution, which we use ourselves in the 4 retail businesses we currently own – yes, we have our own practical experience with this PSO software Xero integration.
Save time, eliminate bookkeeping costs, cut mistakes and make better business decisions sooner with the Tower Systems POS software Xero integration. This link cuts keystrokes and every keystroke cut is a possible mistake eliminated.
The Xero integration designed by Tower Systems, working with the folks at Xero, makes it easy for small business retailers to cut accounting paperwork and thereby tap into time and money saving benefits.
This POS software Xero link has been made for local small business retailers like jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, pet shops, toy shops, sewing shops, newsagents, produce businesses, fishing shops and many more. It has been made for them, to help drive efficiency.
PERSONAL SERVICE MATTERS.
Here are areas where the Tower Systems approach shines, where our personal service matters.
Our training is personal, one-on-one. It is delivered by someone with extensive retail experience.
Our help desk is based locally. When people call, the call is answered by a human and not a computerised phone system. We believe in personal service.
This matters especially to retailers using the Xero link in that if they have a query, it is vital it is answered quickly and professionally. This is the Tower Systems difference in action – based on our own personal experience using the POS software Xero link ourselves – we bring that experience to every call, every interaction.
Tower Systems has released a new functionality POS software update, delivering genuinely new facilities to it’s customers, enabling some to offer and manage services they have not offered before.
This advance in POS software functionality for local retailers has some about through extensive customer and sales prospect consultation and comprehensive new tech. software development. The project has been many months in the making, involving several members of our local Aussie based POS software development team.
Our existing POS software customers have been provided access to there software update through an easy implementation pathway, along with easy access to training so that they can fully learn how these new facilities work and how to implement them within their business.
Our POS software rental customers have immediate access.
Our hosted close POS software customers have the update installed for them, when they want – with timing 100% their call.
As well as the new facilities introduced with this POS software update, plenty of existing facilities have been enhanced based on suggestions made through our transparent Software Ideas platform. Software Ideas is where our customers can suggest enhancements and other customers get to vote on these once we have provided feedback as to technical feasibility. Software Ideas is a differentiator for Tower Systems as it provides to our customers a level of transparency and and democracy that is not common in the commercial software space.
At the same time as releasing this update, we are releasing access to the most comprehensive overhaul of our POS software documentation in more than 15 years with new articles released as well as many existing articles enhanced and adjusted to serve the software its it is today and our customers as they make use of the software today. Our commitment to continual improvement of our documentation and user training resources is key to helping our customers leverage more value from their POS software investment.
Tower Systems is grateful to the active engagement of its customers as this is at the heart of what we deliver for our customers through these POS software and documentation enhancements. 3,500+ local small business retail customers do make a difference.
POS software is like the structure of a house, roof, walls, floors … yes, the structure. What makes the house liable is the furniture and knowledge of how it all works.
This is what POS software onboarding is all about – the training, support and help to make the software useful, valuable, a good investment for your business.
Without professional onboarding, what you get from the POS software may not be what you hoped for.
The tips you learn, the efficient ways to use the software, the accurate handling of data – these are all valuable things to learn and know, all things covered in professional on-boarding, and much more.
The best onboarding for your POS software is that done by the POS software company itself, they are the other party most invested in your successful use of the software. While a third party consultant may do a competent job, they are not commercially invested in the long term benefits for you and your business and its use of the POS software as you are or as the POS software company is.
The Tower Systems approach to POS software onboarding is professional, comprehensive, tailored to each retail sector in which the company serves and fine-tuned to the needs of each business based on what they advise is key to them.
We provide an account manager to oversee the process and a professional software specialist to deliver the training and setup work and advice, to help you get the most from our POS software. These are Tower Systems employees, not outside consultants. This is a huge difference, a valuable difference. It is what makes the house a home, some place you will love, appreciate and benefit from.
This is what good on-boarding looks like. It is what helps local retailers get more value from their POS software. It is the fine-tuning, the tweaks, the adjustments that help deliver POS software setup for your business. No amount of reading or playing can substitute for the efficiency and gains from professional on-boarding by experts who have done it hundreds of times already. Their years of experience can put time and money on your side.
These are just some of the reasons why on-boarding by Tower Systems is valuable to all of our POS software customers.
Footnote: we call it onboarding. But, we have referred to it as on-boarding too as some do.
Last week we released new customer facilities for our POS software customers. These are back office facilities, accessed through our website, for our customers and how they interact with us and, in particular, our support team.
Once our POS software customers log into our website they have access to new technology through which they can log their own cases, see any current cases, search their past cases and, access pre-set help that may offer immediate assistance for any new case.
This advanced self serve technology goes beyond what we offered in the past, beyond what is common is local small business retail POS software support.
What we released last week is a blend of leading edge, best practice, expert technology from overseas, layered with technology we have developed ourselves and populated with a truckload of knowledge and data from our years of service of local small business retailers.
What we released last week is technically innovative, the culmination of a considerable financial investment by us to bring this to life for our customers. we have been working on this project for close to a year. We brought in a CRM solutions expert from outside to help us bring this home.
The project is a good example of us investing in our infrastructure and bringing on board people expert in the area, rather than relying on only our experience.
We are grateful to be able to make this investment for our customers and thankful for the feedback already from customers who are loving the new facilities and the greater power they have for themselves.
POS software support is all about offering advice and answers that suit the questions and in a timely way that serves the needs of customers. What we have released fits with this, and more.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve 3,000+ local specialty retail businesses that trade in a range of unique retail niches. Our focus is on locally owned family businesses as serving their needs is different to serving big mass businesses. We do not serve bug business customers. Our service is personal, local – like the businesses of our customers.
In order to stock take in your retail business successfully, keep these 7 steps in mind.
Bit first, make sure you are using smart POS software that lets you stock take while the shop is open, software that lets you stock take using several computers or terminals.
STEP 1: Decide who will be stock taking and how often it needs to be done. Ask yourself the following: “How big is my stock?” and “How long should stock last?”. Another thing to bear in mind is that stock takes must be done systematically and not on an ad hoc basis. Typically, a shop with 3,000 items can be completed by two people in less than a day.
STEP 2: You stock take should start with a stock count of your stockroom, before you move too the shops floor. Be consistent, methodical, in your approach, covering each space fully before you move to the next space.
STEP 3: In the old manual days, you would write a stock take list as stock takes can be very long processes and this list will act like an agenda for the stock taker. Also, it is useful to use reminders on stock take lists such as “if stock isn’t available check with suppliers”. But those days are over. Today, using smart POS software you can do a stock take faster and more accurately using the POS software.
STEP 4: Stock counts must be done individually to get accurate stock counts. Scan an item, enter a quantity, move on. You can scan each barcode if you wish but that tends to take more time. Move down each aisle in a consistent way: Scan, count, scan, count. Your POS software makes it easy.
STEP 5: All stock of the same type of product should be counted at once to get an accurate total of all stock for that item. This will make stock takes very quick and efficient. See point 4 for doing this in your POS software, scan, count, etc…
STEP 6: Rely on your POS software to store the stock take count data.
STEP 7: Once you have the stock take done, you are ready to use this valuable data to cut for the business dead stock, stock that has not sold in months or years, stock that his not paying its way. This is the value of a stock take for a retail shop.
The Tower Systems smart POS software helps small business retailers complete accurate and time efficient stock takes.
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